Chap. I.} 1535

ing to the north of Anticosti, they ascended the stream in September, as far as a pleasant harbor in the isle, since called Orleans.
The natives, Indians of Algonquin descent, received them with unsuspecting hospitality.
Leaving his ships safely moored, Cartier, in a boat, sailed up the majestic stream to the chief Indian settlement on the island of Hochelaga.
The language of its inhabitants proves them to have been of the Huron family of tribes.1 The town lay at the foot of a hill, which he climbed.
As he reached the summit, he was moved to admiration by the prospect before him of woods, and waters, and mountains.
Imagination presented it as the future emporium of inland commerce, and the metropolis of a prosperous province; filled with bright anticipations, he called the hill Mont-Real,2 and time, that has transferred the name to the island, is realizing his visions.
Cartier also gathered of the Indians some indistinct account of the countries now contained in the north of Vermont and New York.
Re joining his ships, the winter, rendered frightful by the ravages of the scurvy, was passed where they were anchored.
At the approach of spring, a cross was solemnly erected upon land, and on it a shield was suspended, which bore the arms of France, and an inscription, declaring Francis to be the rightful king of these new-found regions.
Having thus claimed pos-

1536 July 6.

session of the territory, the Breton mariner once more regained St. Malo.

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